New Delhi: In the latest sign of rising religious tensions in the country, dozens of people from Hindu right-wing groups were arrested in India on Friday for disrupting Muslim prayer meetings, local media reported.
Hindu groups have been pressuring authorities for weeks to stop Muslims from offering Friday prayers in open spaces in the northern city of Gurgaon, on the outskirts of New Delhi.
Local media reported that on Friday, police deployed several hundred additional personnel and arrested at least 30 people as crowds of locals and Hindu groups raised slogans.
Critics have accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of persecuting minorities, including India’s 200 million Muslim population.
Modi’s government rejects having a Hindu agenda and insists that people of all religions have equal rights. The state of Haryana, of which Gurgaon – also known as Gurugram – is the capital, is ruled by the BJP.
This is not the first time that such an incident has happened in the city, which has several multinational companies.
In 2018, several people from the majority Hindu community raised similar objections to Muslims offering prayers in the open. District officials mediated between the communities and identified around 35 open spaces for Muslims to offer Friday prayers.
Many of those detained on Friday had placards that read, “Gurgaon Administration, wake up from your sleep”. NDTV Television channel reported.
Images on social media showed a group of mostly masked people demanding a halt to the prayers. Others chanted “Jai Shri Ram”, a rallying slogan for Hindu nationalists.
Tension escalated in parts of northeastern Tripura state on Friday after attacks against minority Muslims seen as retaliation for violence against Hindus in neighboring Bangladesh earlier this month.
State officials deployed police and paramilitary forces and banned gatherings of more than five people in areas where the attacks were reported. At least one mosque, several shops and homes of Muslims in the northern part of the state were vandalized since Tuesday, police said.
Senior police officer Bhanupada Chakraborty said, “Some miscreants in Tripura are intent on disturbing peace and communal harmony.”
Published in Dawn, October 30, 2021